The Truth Behind Strawfingers
by Havalubee
Summary: A Yogscast Fic. Specifically about Episode 44 of Sjin's Feed the World Series. Sjin starts to build the buildings for the Sjindig, totally oblivious to the fact that Strawfingers is going to sabotage the party until Kim arrives to tell him the news. It's finally the time to unravel all of Strawfinger's secrets! But what does Kim have to do with all this...?
1. Chapter 1-Strawfingers

Sjin woke up to a new day on his farm. He rubbed his eyes and raised his hand to block out the morning sun's rays that streamed through the window. He could hear a rooster crow somewhere off in the distance.

"Ugh… Okay…" He sat up on his bed. "I'm awake… A new day! What I'm I supposed to do today…?"

The still-sleepy farmer pulled a clean white t-shirt over his head and pulled up his farmer overalls. He brushed his teeth, washed his face and shaved before going downstairs. Before exiting his house, Sjin pulled on his shoes and walked out to the To Do Board.

"Hm… Oh yeah! I need to set down the foundations for the Sjindig!" The farmer scratched his head and started towards the storage shack. "I'll need wood, stone bricks, some fences…"

The determined farmer drew up a design on the spot in this head as he walked to the storage building. He decided to go with that and brought out the necessary materials to set the foundations for the stage, the dance floor and all the other buildings.

"Okay… so I picked out the spot. The place next to the Grandidier's Baobab orchard."

Sjin worked out the exact measurements for the stage, the structure he was going to be building first, in his head. He toyed around with the idea of a few designs and finally settled on the one he liked most. He brought out the wood planks and-

"Sjin! Sjin!"

"What? Where? Is that you, Kim?" The farmer turned around.

Before him was his panting apprentice, bending over and catching her breath. "Sjin… I…"

"H-hold on, Kim. Catch your breath and tell me calmly. What's all the rush?"

Kim looked up, her eyes wide with fear. "Strawfingers is going to sabotage your Sjindig!" She cried.

Sjin felt his heart grow cold. "How? How is he going to do that?" He demanded. "I need to stop him!"

"He's set up several TNT blocks right below your feet! He intends to blow everyone up at the Sjindig!"

"WHAT!?" Sjin cried. His heart was pounding with fear. "No… no… Is he down there right now?"

"I don't know," Kim shook her head in defeat. "I don't know… I was sleeping in my little house when I woke up in the middle of the night. I remembered something Strawfingers was mumbling about when I was still in the Nether."

"Yeah, and that is?"

"He said something about a Sjindig… and something about blowing it up from underneath!"

"WHAT!? But… but…" Sjin sputtered in shock. "We need to do something! Kim, you said that the Strawfingers guy placed TNT below our feet, right?"

"Yeah… that's what he said," Kim nodded.

"Then we need to dig down and stop Strawfingers once and for all!" He took out his shovel.

"Wait! Sjin, no!" Kim reached out and stopped Sjin's arm from using the shovel to dig down. "He might have some kind of remote control or something! If you go down there, he might blow you up!"

"But I can't let that Strawfingers blow up everyone else!" Sjin growled. "My farm… my friends…"

"Sjin… don't look now, but I think that's Strawfingers over there… Is he the purple scarecrow?" Kim gulped.

Sjin turned his head slightly and, out of the corner of his eye, caught a glimpse of the purple bastard, who was silently watching them on top of the Grandidier's Baobabs.

He gulped too and looked at Kim uncertainly. "He's has a very good advantage right now. If he has a remote like you say, then one press and he can end me, you, and both our farms! I don't exactly have my shotgun right now, just a steel sword…"

"Oh no!" Kim's eyes filled with tears. "Baby Sips! What about Baby Sips? He's going to kill all those innocent animals?"

"Well, he is a ruthless mother trucker, no doubt. Let's see what he wants at the very least."

Sjin turned his head and faced Strawfingers. "You there!" He yelled up at the purple scarecrow. "What do you want?"

The scarecrow's face slowly formed a grotesque smile. He jumped down from the tops of the Baobabs and landed a few meters away from Sjin and Kim. Quietly, slowly, he drew out a small, square remote control from his tattered overalls. Sjin drew his sword and kept it at the ready.

"Well, we meet at last, farmer," Strawfingers hissed. "I intend to blow up everyone at your _precious_ Sjindig, and there's not much you can do about it, can you?"

"You won't get away with this, Strawfingers," Sjin said quietly. "As long as I'm alive, I'm going to do everything in my power to prevent you from executing your evil plans!"

At this, Strawfingers started laughing. It was a low chuckle at first, but it quickly grew to a full-out evil laughter. Sjin stood there, unamused, as the purple scarecrow laughed and laughed.

"Ha! Are you kidding me, farmer? You? You and your puny little mustache? Don't be ridiculous! You see, farmer, I hold all the playing cards right now. I have the ultimate power to spare you or blow you to smithereens." He smiled wickedly.

"Don't insult the mustache you scumbag…" Sjin muttered under his breath. He sighed and said, "What do you want from me, Strawfingers?"

Strawfingers thought for a bit. "Well," he said slowly. "I want revenge. Revenge for sticking my _ass _up a stick and leaving me there to rot. You know, I would've not have bothered you if you didn't do that… but since you did, well, I guess it cannot be helped."

"Kim?" Sjin asked. "What's your opinion on this?"

Kim had been quite quiet all throughout Sjin and Strawfinger's conversation. Sjin thought he detected a bit of guilt in her averted eyes, but he quickly shoved aside the idea. Kim couldn't _possibly_ be in with Strawfinger's plan.

"Um… I don't really know what to make of this situation…" She mumbled. "It doesn't exactly involve me, Sjin."

"Kim! Everyone might be blown up, and you don't care?" Sjin cried incredulously. "How could you?"

Kim looked away, guilt still present in her eyes. "I just… don't want to get more involved in this…"

"Wait. _More_ involved?"

Meanwhile, Strawfingers was watching the whole thing with a crooked smile. "She hasn't told you?" He chuckled. "How pitiful. And here I thought you humans were more intelligent."

"What do you mean?" Sjin shot at the scarecrow. "What do you mean, she hasn't told me anything? Kim has nothing to do with you, besides the fact that you kidnapped her!"

"Sjin…" Kim said quietly. "I didn't want to do this, but…"

Sjin turned around to face Kim, but it was too late. His beloved apprentice brought down a pipe on his head, and the farmer knew no more.


	2. Chapter 2-Stuck in the Nether

"Ugh… why do I always get hit on the head? I thought that leaving Sipsco would give my head a vacation from the bricks he always throws at me…"

Sjin opened his eyes slowly and blinked several times to get his eyes adjusted to the light.

He was in the Nether. Ghasts were flying around, paying no attention to confused farmer. Zombie Pigmen could be seen roaming around off in the distance. A sea of lava stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Holy shit… What the hell happened?" Sjin tried really hard to remember what happened before he ended up in the Nether.

_That's right. Kim. She banged me on the head with a pipe. Why? Why would she do that?_

Sjin looked around and surveyed the area around him. He was on top of Strawfinger's little tower. His hands was bound behind his back, and he was sitting in a little wooden chair. Inspecting the chair closer, Sjin saw that the chair was mahogany.

_At least it's mahogany. Not that fleshy pink wood. Eugh. Where's Strawfingers? Where's Kim? _

"Sjin?" Kim's voice rang out uncertainly below him. She climbed up the stairs. "Are you okay?"

"Well, besides the fact that I have a horrible headache after you bashed my brains in with that pipe, I'm quite okay," Sjin muttered. "What are you doing here anyways? To gloat?"

Kim turned away in shame. "I didn't want to hit you, I told you that."

"Yeah, but why did you do it anyways? It's quite hard to trust you now after all that happened. I suppose you're in the league with Strawfingers?"

Kim looked him straight in the eyes, unexplainable sadness in her own. "Sjin, listen. I-"

"Farmer! Are you awake yet?" A gnarly voice called as a purple scarecrow climbed up the stairs. "You are! Good, good. Now, do you know why you're still alive?" He ignored Kim completely as he placed himself directly in front of Sjin.

"I don't know. You tell me," Sjin muttered. Thoughts were racing in his head. Why _was_ he still alive? Didn't Strawfingers want the satisfaction of killing him? What was he up to? And why was Kim here? Why did she bang him on the head with a pipe? Why didn't Strawfingers tie her up too, if she wasn't in the league with him? The numerous questions and overthinking was hurting Sjin's head a little; he still had a slight headache after getting throttled by the pipe.

"You are alive because I still need you, farmer. You see, I don't want to kill just _you._ I want you to see your little friends blown up as well. And you can watch them die before I kill you myself. Doesn't that sound like a wonderful plan?" Strawfingers smirked.

"No, it doesn't," said Sjin. "And how are you going to blow up all my friends if I'm stuck here in the Nether?"

"I've already thought about that, farmer. You see, during the day you get to go back to your little farm and work on those buildings. At night, you come back here and sit obediently. How does that sound?" The purple scarecrow chuckled. "I know, just wonderful, isn't it?"

"You can kill me and blow up my farm, because I won't finish those buildings and the Sjindig won't go on. You won't kill my friends that way," Sjin smiled inwardly at his response. That's right. He can't hurt his friends if they don't come to the farm. Most of them have indestructible armor, and Duncan has a force field around his castle.

"If you don't do it, then you can witness your friend over there die a slow, painful death." As quick as lightning, Strawfingers reached out and grabbed Kim. His apprentice struggled for a moment before the scarecrow pressed a steel sword, _his_ steel sword, against her neck. Kim flinched as the cold metal touched her skin.

"Sjin!" Kim whimpered. Her eyes were wide open in terror.

Sjin had only a few moments to think. Kim betrayed him, but was that really the case? She did have something to tell him earlier before Strawfingers came. If there was the slightest chance that she wasn't in the league with Strawfingers, then letting her die would be a huge mistake. If he agreed to go with Strawfinger's plans, then maybe he and Kim would be able to figure out a way out and a way to get rid of all the TNT under his farm. If Kim wasn't in the league with the scarecrow, she would just respawn elsewhere and most likely hate him for the rest of her life. He really didn't need someone else to hate him.

"Okay. Strawfingers, you win. I'll do what you say. Just let Kim go."

A crooked smile broke out from Strawfinger's scarecrow face. "I thought you would've listed her out as a traitor and left her to die. I've underestimated your trust, farmer. Tomorrow you will start building the things necessary for your little Sjindig. As for you…" He stopped pressing the steel sword against Kim's neck and pushed her towards Sjin. His apprentice stumbled to the ground.

"Hey!" She protested. "What are you-?"

Strawfingers pulled Kim up roughly before she could say anything else and led her to the same wooden fencepost Sjin found her on before. He pushed Kim against the fencepost and quickly tied her hands around her back. "Thanks for spying for me, girl. Now, that I don't need you anymore, you can stay here on this fencepost and rot just like I was destined to."

"You, lying, cheating, filthy-"

"Yeah, yeah, vermin, evil, monster and all that," Strawfingers listed off boredly. He turned towards Sjin. "Don't fail me, farmer. You know what's at stake." The scarecrow let out an evil laugh.

Sjin glared daggers at the purple scarecrow's back as he strolled down the stairs. Sjin waited for several minutes to make sure that Strawfingers was long gone. Then he turned and glared at Kim.

"So? What were you going to tell me?" He asked suspiciously.

Guilt filled Kim's eyes again, and she looked down at the ground. "You probably won't forgive me for this, but… really, I'm not in the league with Strawfingers! I swear!"

"Yeah, so what was that earlier?"

"Strawfingers made me… he said that he'll personally kill you in front of my eyes if I didn't do what he asked of me! I wanted to tell you, but that freak was always watching! You might not realize it, but he was always watching you from a distance…"

Sjin relaxed a little, but he was still wary. "So you're not in the league with Strawfingers anymore?"

"No! Of course not! I was never in the league with him. I'm not a heartless person! He was threatening me to do things, like spy on you and tell him of your farm progress, or to do other things like that fake warning and the smashing-your-head-in thing. Even if I was helping Strawfingers on my own will, I would've deserted him after what he did to me."

"Oh… but why did you do what he said just because he was threatening to kill me? I can take care of myself, you know. I've made war with Duncan before, and I have defended myself against Rythian." Sjin narrowed his eyes at her.

"Yeah, well, that was the time when you had advanced machines, armor and weapons! Plus you had Sips to help you for most of the time!" Kim defended herself. "You don't wear any armor on your farm, plus you only carry around a steel sword with you, or no sword at all! It would be a piece of cake for Strawfingers to kill you out of the blue."

"I suppose you have a point… I was looking for a peaceful life on a farm…" Sjin sighed. "You know if I did die I can always respawn somewhere else… I wouldn't hold you accountable for your actions. Everything, all this," he gestured to the tower with his head, "This is all Strawfinger's doing. The thing that I don't get is why he wants revenge to such a high scale. Even Rythian, who lost more than he did, didn't want to kill Sips to spite me. He just wanted me. So what's the deal with this Strawfingers character?"

"I don't know…" Kim said slowly. "I didn't have too much contact with Strawfingers. I just did what he told me to do…"

"Oh, well that's fine," Sjin shrugged. "We can figure that out later. Now how are we supposed to save our farms, our friends, both our lives AND kill Strawfingers without blowing everything sky high?"

"Um…"

The two were silent for several minutes, then Sjin broke the eerie silence.

"Shit."

**A/N: Sorry for such a delay with the chapter! I couldn't get the chapter to go the way I wanted. This chapter was unavoidable, so much talking and no action, and it looked like crap. It still looks like crap, so leave a review to tell me what I can do better! Thanks everybody! **

**Havs, out!**


	3. Chapter 3-Three Days

"Sjin, we've been here for a while. I think it'll be daytime soon. Do you have any ideas? Any?"

Sjin thought hard. It was a really tough spot they were in. One false step, and that's the end. Everything ruined, and Strawfingers wins.

"Well… I lost everything when you whacked me on the head… so I do need to get into the storage room to get supplies… maybe I can sneak in a few things to help us…"

"Sjin, that's a great idea! You can craft some swords for us and just say that you're building stairs or signs. Maybe you can work really slowly to buy us some more time or something… maybe craft us some armor while you're at it…" Kim's voice grew more and more excited as she thought of more ideas.

"Yeah! That's something. Then we can probably get our gear on and escape when I come back and try to kill Strawfingers. I just wonder how risky this would be… but if we're still in the Nether, we should be fine." Sjin struggled against his bonds. The tight rope was rubbing against his wrists all night, and he could feel wet blood trickle through his fingers.

"Kim?"

"Yeah?"

"Are your wrists a bit raw and bloody from the rope?"

"… A bit. I can hear a faint dripping behind me."

"We should really tell Strawfingers to put us in cells or something… I can't work well with my hands like this…"

"Oh! Use that as an excuse to stall a bit more. We need more time to think." Kim jumped a little in surprise. "I can hear Strawfingers coming up!"

Sjin and Kim fell silent as the two of them listened to the rapidly approaching footfalls of the scarecrow.

"It's morning, farmer, and you know what that means," Strawfingers said as he untied Sjin. "Time to build."

Sjin stood up slowly once his hands were free. His muscles were sore after sitting in the chair for such a long time, especially his butt muscles. Strawfingers let him stretch for a minute before shoving him down the stairs.

"Hey! No pushing the master builder!" Sjin snapped at him. Strawfingers just snorted but let the farmer walk himself down the stairs.

Sjin smiled slightly as Strawfingers followed him closely to the Nether Portal that led to his farm. The scarecrow and the farmer jumped into the portal and warped back into real life.

**xxXxxXxx**

Kim watched Sjin and the scarecrow walk down the stairs until she couldn't hear their footsteps any more. Then she looked up and sent a silent prayer to Notch.

_Please. Protect Sjin._

A thin line of blood dripped on the floor.

**xxXxxXxx**

Sjin tumbled out of the Nether Portal and threw his arms out to stop his fall just before he fell splat on the floor. Strawfingers strolled out without any problem.

"Come on, farmer. On your feet. Go to your little storage hut and get your materials."

"Uh yeah. Sorry about that."

Sjin got up and hightailed to the storage hut. Strawfingers watched him go and muttered to himself, "Pathetic."

Sjin hurried over into the storage room before Strawfingers could follow. He quickly rummaged through all the chests and grabbed a few stacks of food and diamonds and shoved them in his overall pockets before Strawfingers even started walking towards the storage shack. Then he calmly walked over to the chest that held all the building materials and shouldered several Grandidier's Baobab planks as Strawfingers caught up to him.

The scarecrow eyed Sjin suspiciously as the farmer flashed a cherry smile at him. What did the farmer and the girl talk about when he was gone? He smiled as he thought of a great, Strawfingers-like idea to get them to stop stalling.

"Farmer!"

"Um, yeah?"

"You have three days to finish the buildings."

"WHAT!?" Sjin dropped the planks in pure shock. They fell on his foot with clatter and the he yelped and fell to the floor, holding his foot and mumbling several curse words. Strawfingers rolled his eyes. "But… but I still need to do other things, like catalog food recipes, start my milk facility and my fish farm, and get my sequoia trees!"

"No excuses, farmer. You finish the buildings, then you have that Sjindig. You're going to have to make do with what you have, or else your little apprentice, and your farm, goes."

"Strawfingers, you son of a gun…" Sjin muttered. How the hell was he supposed to finish the buildings in three days!? Raising his voice he said, "Alright, alright. Three days is fine. Now, can I go?"

"Go, farmer. But I'll be watching." Strawfingers locked eyes with the farmer to tell him that he meant business.

Sjin gulped and quickly walked past Strawfingers and towards the Grandidier's Baobabs. He cleared an area for the stage, the dance floor, the docks, and the other buildings. He filled in the holes he made earlier for the bigger trees and leveled off the land. As he was working, worried thoughts wormed their way into his head. He angrily shoved them away.

_I can't work well if I keep on worrying about Strawfingers and the limited amount of time that I have. Right now I just need to work on building for the Sjindig as fast as I can. Let's see… the docks should be first._

Building up the supports with scaffolding, Sjin filled in the area with the lime green Baobab planks. The dock was about done.

Wasting no time to look at his handiwork, Sjin quickly set up the foundations for the stage with cobblestone. Then he created a wooden stage and made a small overhang to make it look better. Then he set down stairs to reach the stage and set up a stand-up mike for announcements and the singing.

After finishing the stage, Sjin walked back and looked at it from a distance. Then he went back and fixed a few things and moved on to the dance floor.

Sjin went back to the storage house and retrieved several stacks of colored lamps, along with several strings of alloy wires, redstone, and redstone torches. He quickly made his way back to the site of the Sjindig. Using his hands, Sjin scooped dirt out from the ground and replaced it with wires and lamps, changing different colors each time to give the illusion of a flashing disco floor. Sjin was nearly done when he scooped up the last mounds of dirt to reveal a gaping hole in the ground.

"What? What's this?" Sjin thought quickly. Strawfingers was watching somewhere, so he couldn't just go down there and investigate. He decided to play dumb and cover up the hole until he and Kim could get free and check it out. "Whoa! A big hole! Um… I should cover it up. Don't want anyone to fall into it."

Sjin covered up the hole with dirt again, set down the wires and lamps and continued building, but this time, he was thinking up of a plan. Sjin was positive that that was the entrance Strawfingers was using to bring down all the TNT and God-knows-what-else. He hooked up the wires to a lever and flipped it. The different colored lamps flashed on as the redstone signal traveled through the wires.

"Aw man, that's pretty cool!" Sjin smiled. He wiped a few streaks of sweat off his forehead and looked west. The sun was setting slowly in the crimson sky, casting long shadows off the trees Sjin worked so hard to breed. "Oh, it's getting dark…"

Sjin jumped fifty feet in the air when he felt a clawed finger tap him on the shoulder. He turned around and raised his fists to defend himself, but his shoulders sagged when he realized that it was just Strawfingers, wearing a smug smirk that made Sjin want to slap it right off.

"Time to go, farmer. Go back to that storehouse and dump all your things back into the chest."

"Uh, yeah."

Sjin walked back to the storage room with Strawfingers following closely behind. He dumped the scaffolding and wood into the proper chests, but decided to sneak some back in his pocket when Strawfingers was looking in his other chests, along with the food, diamonds, some redstone and stone.

"Okay, I'm done."

"Really?" Sjin felt a cold chill run down his spine as the scarecrow looked him over with cold, black, calculating eyes. "Show me your hands," Strawfingers snapped. Sjin held out his two empty hands. Strawfingers narrowed his eyes. "Pockets," he demanded.

Sjin uncertainly pulled out his two front pockets. Both were empty, which was no surprise since Sjin usually uses those pockets to hold equipment, not supplies or materials. He kept all of that in his back pockets, and counted himself as extremely lucky when the scarecrow didn't check those.

"Alright, back to the Nether."

**xxXxxXxx**

Kim's feet hurt so much. She was standing up, chained to the stupid fencepost, for several hours while Sjin got to go out and stretch his limbs. She had to endure attacks from the stupid Ghasts and endure snide comments from the Zombie Pigmen, who were obviously laughing at her imprisonment. She missed the beautiful blue sky, the trees and the grass and flowers. She missed the sun that would come out to play during the day and slept at night. She missed the pigs, the cows, and all that sheep 'n stuff… Basically, she was just about done with the Nether.

Kim was overjoyed when she saw Sjin walk up the stairs; however she was a lot less overjoyed when she saw Strawfingers following close after. Sjin flashed Kim an encouraging smile and sat down in the chair again and let Strawfingers tie the rope around his hands. Then Strawfingers left without a word.

"Hm… that was odd. Usually he would say something rude or something along those lines…. But what happened today Sjin? Did you figure out anything?"

Sjin was still deep in thought for several minutes. The he smiled and replied, "Kim. I think I've got ourselves a plan. I think I've found the entrance to Strawfinger's little TNT base underground, and once we have the necessary supplies, we can go down there and disable the explosives before he has a chance to detonate them!"

Kim felt a weight lifted off her shoulders, and sighed in relief. "That's great! So… what are we going to do?"

"Okay…" Sjin whispered. "This is the plan…"

**A/N: Please review please! I'm a bit more satisfied with this chapter, but still please tell me what I could do better!** **Thanks! Next chapter coming soon, I hope.**

**Havs, out!**


	4. Chapter 4-Duncanlovesdinos

"Are you sure about this, Sjin? What if Strawfingers comes in when we're in the middle of it? What then?" Kim bit her lip with worry.

"Don't worry, Kim. Your hearing is a lot better than mine. My hearing got a little worse after being around all those loud machines for so long… So you can be our lookout! … or is it our hearout?" He chuckled at his joke. "And don't worry! I'm sure I can figure it out! I'm a professional with machines!"

"Famous last words…" Kim muttered.

Even though Sjin was trying to stay optimistic, he knew that it was going to be a long shot. So many things could go wrong in the middle of their operation. Strawfingers could walk in at any time. Even though it was a long shot, it was still their best shot. They _had_ to try. Or else. He didn't really want to think about what else could happen.

"Yeah, so let's get started." Sjin fished a diamond out of his back pocket.

"Wait!"

Sjin looked up at Kim. "What?"

"We need an operation name!" Kim grinned down at him. He couldn't help but sigh.

"Kim, this is a life or death sort of thing! We need to hurry, not worry about silly operation-"

"But it'll be fun! And everything is so serious, I thought a cool operation name would liven things up! Come on, you can work while we think of one!" Kim attempted to make big puppy eyes at Sjin. To be honest, he thought that they were kind of cute.

Sighing, he gave in. "Alright. You can talk while I work." He clutched the diamond and started cutting through the thick rope with the sharp side. The going was slow, but at least it was steady.

"Hm…" Kim mused. "Operation… Strawfingers?"

"Nope."

"Oh, okay… Um… Operation TNT!"

"I don't really want to be reminded that my farm's life is on the line."

"Okay, fine… Operation… Operation…"

As Kim was struggling to find a good Operation name, Sjin had hacked through the ropes with the shard of diamond. Slipping the diamond back into his pocket, he shook off the ropes. Then the farmer stood up, stretched, and smoothed off the wrinkles that gathered on his overalls.

"Hey, are you going to get me out too?"

"Yeah, just let me make a sword to make it easier." Sjin quickly created a workbench and worked quickly, his nimble hands placing, hammering, wielding diamonds and sticks together to create a shining diamond sword. Twirling the blade like he owned it his whole life, Sjin stepped behind Kim and quickly sliced through her bonds, leaving her hands uninjured.

"Thanks." His apprentice stepped away from the fencepost. Sjin had just turned away from her when she grabbed his shoulders and twirled him around to face her again. His cheeks started heating up a little, but if it was from her close presence or the general weather in the Nether, he couldn't tell.

"Sjin! Operation Sjindig! It's perfect!" Kim grinned happily. She let go of Sjin and hummed to herself, content with the name.

"Uh…" Sjin stammered. "Operation Sjindig is fine… I'm down with that." He coughed. "Alright, you stay on the hearout and tell me if Strawfingers is coming. I'm going to set up a computer and try to reach someone… I just hope it works in the Nether…"

"Alright, but can I have something to do? Just sitting here and looking at my bloody wrists for a few hours is going to be so boring…"

"Yeah, make us some diamond armor." Sjin handed Kim some wood and an armful of diamonds. "It probably won't do much, but it'll help."

"Yeah okay, I'll do that." Kim set up her own workbench and started crafting. Sjin turned to his own workbench. "Okay… how do you build a computer?"

"You don't know how to build a computer?" Kim asked disbelievingly. "What will we do now if you don't know how to build a computer?"

"Don't worry, Kim, I've got this." Sjin took out a strange-looking device out of his pocket. It was some kind of fancy piece of technology, but it was entirely see-through, except for the thin black frame.

She cocked her head to the side. "What's that?"

"This is a portable encyclopedia. Duncan gave it to all of us for Christmas a couple years back. Everyone has one. But since you're new, I guess you don't have one yet… Maybe he'll give you one for Christmas this year!"

"Yeah… maybe…" Kim said slowly. "But what does it do?"

Sjin turned it on. The screen flashed white and rows and rows of different items appeared on the surface. Kim stared at it, lost for words.

"It's touch screen, see?" Sjin swiped a finger on the screen. The rows changed to different items. "You tap on one item to see how to make it, or you double tap to see what it's used for."

"Wow… That's pretty cool! So what you're saying is that you can look up the recipe for a computer here?"

"Yep! There's even a search engine! Let's see… computer… Here we go! Stone around redstone dust with a glass pane. That's actually quite easy. Here we go…" Sjin quickly placed the blocks together and created a small computer. "Now for a monitor… and a wireless modem... and all the other bits… Bam! Done."

Kim looked up from her armor-making project to look at three blocky machines that resembled primitive computers.

"Uh… Sjin? Is that really the computer? Even your encyclopedia is fancier than that…" She muttered.

"Hey! We don't have enough time! This is just to get the job done… now I need to connect to Mushnet… Let's see here… Type type mothertrucker! Come on… please… someone reply…"

**xxXxxXxx**

** CraftOS 1.5**

** Sjin:**Please! Is anyone on? Please reply!

**Sjin: **Please!

**Duncanlovesdinos: **Sjin is that u?

**Sjin:** Duncan! HELP ME!

**Duncanlovesdinos:** uh Sjin what's wrong calm down mate u need more pipes or something

**Sjin: **Strawfingers has a wireless remote and he can blow up my farm anytime!

**Duncanlovesdinos:** Well that's intense… Where r u

**Sjin:** I'm in the Nether with Kim. Strawfingers imprisoned us here

**Duncanlovesdinos:** What? How can I help? Wait who's Strawfingers again

**Sjin: **He's the evil scarecrow. Come over tomorrow night. Bring Rythian if you can.

**Duncanlovesdinos:** Rythian? U sure about tht

**Sjin:** Yes, we r going to need his knowledge. Not sure if there's just TNT or a nuke as well

**Duncanlovesdinos:** Holy shit this is like the nuke and Zoey all over again

**Duncanlovesdinos: **I'm on it

**Sjin: **Tell Rythian to bring the best armor and weapons he's got. Same for you.

**Duncanlovesdinos:**Yup.

**Sjin: **Remember the Sjindig I was talking about

**Duncanlovesdinos:** Yeah

**Sjin:** He's planning to blow everyone up at the party

**Sjin: **Dunno if Zoey can take another blast

** Duncanlovesdinos: **She's traumatized enough. I'll help.

**Sjin: **Good. Meet at the storehouse tomorrow night.

**Duncanlovesdinos: **Right.

**User has disconnected. Session closed.**

** xxXxxXxx**

Sjin sighed in relief. "Oh, this is good. Duncan and Rythian should be here tomorrow night."

"Cool! Um, Sjin? When did you learn how to work computers? It doesn't seem like a lot of people use them, or else they would probably be more developed…"

Sjin scratched his beard. "Hm… You have a good point. I first learned how to work computers through Zoey. She taught me the basics the last time she visited the compound…"

"She did? But I thought Zoey and Rythian hated you for blowing up the old world." Kim's eyebrows furrowed.

"Eh? But… but! Yeah, I did start the war… But that's all in the past now. Rythian, Duncan and I made a truce so something like that would not happen again. Zoey came over after the nuke… and she taught me computers during her stay."

"Hm. That's interesting… I kinda want to know more about that war…"

"Well, you can ask Duncan and Rythian after this is all over. I'm not so fond of talking about it…"

Kim, who had just finished the suits of armor, said, "Sure, I can do that. I finished the armor, Sjin. Now we just need to go the daytime routine again and we can raid Strawfinger's little hellhole. By the way, here's your clothes. I made myself a sword too." She tossed the heavy diamond gear to Sjin. He caught it with a grunt.

"Alright, don't wear this until tomorrow night. And don't show your sword." Sjin quickly destroyed the computer and the rest of the computer equipment with a diamond pickaxe. "We need to stay as normal as possible. If Strawfingers doesn't know about this, then that's good. Although I wonder what he gets up to when he's gone…"

"Maybe he goes around and kills creepers to make more TNT…"

"Yeah, maybe… I don't know if there's a nuke inside his hole… If there is… well then our farms are screwed."

"And Baby Sips… Oh shoot! Baby Sips! We haven't fed him in a while, and the grass inside the pen is so little! He must be starving!" Kim's voice grew more and more panicked.

Sjin quickly tried to comfort his apprentice. "Baby Sips is going to be fine. I'll feed him tomorrow so you won't have to worry, okay?"

"R-really?" Kim calmed down a little. "Thanks!"

"Yeah-" Sjin was cut short because Kim suddenly pulled him in for a hug. This time his face turned a handsome shade of red that matched Kim's dress. "Uh… Kim?"

"Oh! Sorry…" Kim quickly stepped away. "I'm just really happy you would do that for Baby Sips!"

** "**Of course I will! He is named after my boss, after all. Now, speaking of eating, I'm kind of hungry. Sandwich?" Sjin patted his apprentice's shoulder awkwardly and pulled out a neat bundle of steak sandwiches. The aroma of the seasoned meat and the toasted bread was enough to make the farmer's stomach growl.

Kim's eyes lit up. "Yes! I'm starving! Haven't eaten since yesterday! Thanks!" She accepted two steak sandwiches from Sjin and sat on the floor, eating away. Sjin sat next to her, and the two of them ate in silence.

When they were finished, Sjin stood up and dusted off the crumbs off his overalls and fingers. "We should get back to our positions. Can you tie my hands please?" He sat on the chair and looked at Kim expectantly.

"Sure," Kim shrugged. "But who will tie me up?"

"You just need to pretend that you are tied up. Strawfingers probably isn't going to check you anyways. And if he gets suspicious, I can always say something to get him to avert his attention. Hopefully that works."

"Hm, good idea." Kim walked up behind Sjin and tied his hands with the rope. Then she jumped up and wrapped her arms behind the fencepost. "How does this look?"

"Very convincing," Sjin admitted. Kim beamed. "Now we wait."

**A/N: ****Took a tad bit longer to write, but it should be okay! School's starting ;-; so expect the chapters to come out a little slower. I'll try my best, I love writing these!**

**Havs, out!**


	5. Chapter 5-Down the Hatches

During the day, Sjin quickly built the stands for food, dessert, drinks, and all the other good stuff. Before the day was over, he grabbed a sack of wheat from the storage to feed Baby Sips and his family.

"Hey, little guy, how's it going?" Sjin said as he closed the fence gate. Baby Sips looked up at him and headbutted the bag of wheat playfully.

"You hungry?" Baby Sips baaed loudly. "Yeah, I guess you are. Eat up!"

Sjin grabbed a handful of wheat and offered it to the lamb. He sniffed it and grabbed the wheat with his mouth, chewing hungrily.

Sjin petted Baby Sips while he ate and fed his parents too. "Man," he said. "Baby Sips, you are going to grow up to be a strong, handsome ram. Okay?"

The little sheep looked up and stared into Sjin's blue eyes. "Baa," he replied.

Sjin was suddenly struck by the cuteness of Baby Sips. "Aw!" He kneeled down and hugged Baby Sips' neck, not caring if he smelled like old grass. "You're so cute!"

"Baa!" Baby Sips cried out in alarm and tried to pull away. Sjin quickly released him from the hug.

"Heh heh. Sorry, Sips. Are you okay now? I'll leave this bag of wheat here so you can eat when you're hungry. I don't think I'll be coming back soon, so take care of yourself, okay?" Sjin set down the bag of grain at Baby Sips' feet and stood up. He smiled one last time at the small guy and closed the pen behind him.

When night fell, Strawfingers came over and escorted Sjin back into the Nether. "So," he hissed. "How are the buildings going?"

"It's going fine, but I need a bit more time… My buildings aren't exactly how I wanted them to be, since I didn't have as much time as I wanted to." Sjin glared at Strawfingers.

The evil scarecrow just shrugged. "Make do with what you have."

Sjin rolled his eyes. "Jeez, why do you want to blow up everyone I care about just because I made you my scarecrow? It's a little extreme, don't you think?"

Strawfingers didn't reply. Instead, he shoved Sjin through the Nether Portal and jumped in after him.

Sjin entered the top of the tower and was relieved to find Kim still standing next to the fencepost. Strawfingers tied the ropes around Sjin's hands and slapped him with his scarecrow hand before he left.

"Ow! That jerk…" Sjin muttered. "Kim, can you get me out?"

"Jeez, what did you say to him?" Kim asked as she hacked through Sjin's bonds. "Did you insult him or something?"

"No, I just asked him why he wanted extreme revenge. He didn't say anything though." Sjin stood up and rubbed his wrists to get the blood flowing again. "Let's get our gear on and go and meet Duncan and Rythian at the storehouse."

"Yeah. God, this is so intense," Kim said as she pulled on her diamond boots. "I just hope that those two made it here."

"I just hope Duncan managed to persuade Rythian to leave Zoey for a short time and come here. Those two know more about forcefields than me."

"Forcefields? What do they have to do with the TNT?"

"Well, if we create a forcefield around the bombs, we can detonate them without harming our farms. The TNT will explode inside the forcefield and not everywhere else, yeah?"

"Hm… okay. So did you tell Duncan to bring his equipment?"

"No, he can use my materials. It'll be alright. I don't want him to be using his resources to help me. I have enough resources for him to do his things."

Sjin fitted on his diamond helmet and looked at Kim. "You ready?"

His apprentice nodded. "Let's do it!"

"Alright, we need to be sneaky…" Sjin whispered as they sneaked down the stairs. "I don't know where Strawfingers is, but we can't let him see us."

The two farmers stayed silent as the two of them noiselessly climbed down the stairs. It seemed like the whole Nether was holding its breath until the two made it to the ground floor, safe and undetected.

"Coast is clear, let's make a dash for the Portal!" Sjin ran to the black structure in the distance. Kim followed close behind. Together, the two ran straight into the swirling purple smoke in the Portal and warped back to Sjin's farm.

**xxXxxXxx**

Duncan flew as fast as he could to Rythian's temporary desert home. He had no idea how he was supposed to tell the Mage about the farmer's dilemma, and how to persuade him to leave Zoey for a night and help the man who he had such a long grudge on. Hopefully Rythian made a truce with him like he did with the scientist.

As Duncan flew closer to his destination, he could see the walls and the dim lights of the enclosed village.

"Whoa!" The scientist rolled over in midair to dodge an bullet that had whipped past him. He quickly spotted the source of the flying projectile. Teep the dinosaur was holding up his sniper rifle, aiming at Duncan.

"Hold up, Teep! I'm here to talk to Rythian, not make any trouble. Don't worry." Teep still looked suspicious and kept his weapon trained on Duncan as he landed in the middle of their base camp. Rythian looked up from the crafting table in the corner to see what was going on. His eyes widened at the sight of the trespassing scientist.

The Mage charged at Duncan with his Thaumium Sword. The scientist held up his arms and started to explain, but not before Rythian tackled him to the ground.

"Hey, Rythian! What are you doing!? I thought we had a truce to not hurt each other!" Duncan struggled under Rythian's grip, but the persistent Mage held tight.

"What are you doing here!?" He growled. "How did you find out our location?"

"Look, I knew where you were all along, okay!? I'm not going to tell you how I know, but I'm here to tell you something really important!"

"What do you want? I thought I told you the last time we met to get out of my sight! I want to live a peaceful life with Zoey and Teep, and not deal with you ever again!"

"I know, I know! I wouldn't come here unless it was an emergency! Sjin's farm is jeopardized and so is his life!"

Rythian stopped struggling with Duncan for a moment and glared down at him. "That's it? Can't the guy take care of his own problems?"

Duncan stared back at Rythian. "You don't understand. Sjin's scarecrow went rogue and set tons of TNT under his farm. There's also a 99.9% chance that he got a few nukes down there too. Sjin told me to get you so we can help him with the problem."

"Why would he need me? Wouldn't you be enough?" Rythian narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"You have a lot of experience with science, even though it's a bit rusty. I think Sjin's got a plan up his sleeve. We need to help him! Plus, maybe this would make us trust each other a bit more."

"But I can't just leave Zoey and Teep alone. They need me." Rythian glanced at Zoey, who was tinkering with her robo arm and humming a tune to herself.

"It's just one night, Rythian. Zoey's an adult, she can take care of herself!"

"She's a very childish adult then!" Rythian snapped. "She always gets into some sort of trouble every time I turn my back on her."

"_Who_ is a childish adult?"

Rythian and Duncan looked up to see a disapproving Zoey. She crossed her arms and smirked at the two.

"Wow, um, are you guys gonna stay like that forever?"

Rythian looked down and noticed that he was still on top of Duncan and blushed slightly. He quickly stood up and brushed the sand off his robes.

"Sorry," he muttered.

The scientist stood up and rubbed his wrists. "No problem." Then he turned his attention to Zoey. "Zoey! You have to tell him to go with me! Sjin's farm is in danger because an evil scarecrow is going to blow it up with nukes!"

Zoey's smiling face turned serious almost immediately. "Sjin's farm is going to be blown to pieces by a nuke!? Hurry, Rythian! You have to go and save it! I can't let another nuke go off… but every time I get close to one or a blast site, bad memories come back…. Please! Rythian! Do it for me! Don't let another nuke blow off!"

Rythian still looked uncertain, but he relented. "All right, fair enough. How are we going to get there in time though?" he asked. "I lost my Swiftwolf's Rending Gale and all my other magic stuff a long time ago, and it's going to take a long time to walk to Sjin's farm…"

Now it was Duncan's turn to smile. "Don't worry, pal, I've got you all covered." He retrieved an extra jetpack out of his bag and handed it to Rythian. "Here. We should leave as soon as possible."

"But, Zoey-"

"I can take care of myself," Zoey interrupted him. "I have Teep, and I can fight. Besides, the two people who were trouble for us before will be miles away!"

The Mage sighed. "Just… take care of yourself, okay? I won't forgive myself if anything bad happened to you. I'm supposed to protect you."

"And you are, but not right now. You need to help the people who need you. I promise I will be safe, okay?" Zoey smiled at Rythian. "Go kick some scarecrow butt."

"Alright, Zoey. Be careful. Duncan, let's go." Rythian strapped on his jetpack and the two flew off to Sjin's farm under the cover of the night.

**xxXxxXxx**

Sjin and Kim tumbled out of the Nether Portal together. "Ow…" Kim mumbled as she rubbed her head, which had hit the side of the Portal when they ran through.

"You okay there?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. The diamond helmet absorbed most of the damage."

Sjin walked outside and scanned the skies. He expected Duncan and Rythian to make an appearance in the sky soon, or else there was a better chance he and Kim could be found out. If Strawfingers wasn't in the Nether, then he was definitely in this world, probably up to no good.

"Look, there they are!" Kim pointed upward. In the distant night sky appeared two rapidly approaching characters, one with a bright white lab coat and googles, another with mystical robes and a black mask.

"That's Rythian and Duncan all right," Sjin nodded. He was quite impressed that the two came together. He wasn't even sure if Rythian would agree to come in the first place. "Let's go and meet them at the storehouse then."

The farmer and his apprentice ran to meet the scientist and mage at the farm storage house.

"Hi guys!" Kim waved at the two as they descended. "Thanks for coming!"

"Yeah, uh, no problem," Rythian said. He looked at Sjin. "What's going on?"

"Well, do you remember seeing a scarecrow in my wheat field the last time you came here?"

Rythian thought for a moment, then he nodded. "Yeah, it was purple."

"Well, that scarecrow came to life and wants revenge. According to Kim, he put a lot of TNT under my farm, and he holds a remote control, which probably means that he put nukes under there too."

"Oh… wow." Rythian sucked in some of the crisp night air. "So what are we going to do about it?"

"We build a forcefield around it and detonate the nuke inside the forcefield. Then we can collect the TNT so it won't blow. Done deal." Duncan shrugged. "Won't be too hard."

"Okay, so do you need some stuff for the equipment? I have materials in my chest," Sjin offered.

The scientist shook his head and smiled. "I brought everything already. Just lead us down to the nukes and I'll set up everything there."

"Yeah, let's go." The group followed Sjin to the site of the Sjindig. Rythian and Duncan stopped several times along the way to comment at the farmer's progress.

"Wow, you expanded a lot man. Good job."

"Those are some nice trees you got there. Very nice."

"Those are some pretty cool buildings, Sjin, but don't you think you could've done better?"

"Hey, I only got three days to build everything! I was rushed! I'll make them better once all this is over. Alright, here it is." Sjin stopped everyone at a small patch of ground.

"Is it underground?" Rythian guessed.

"Yeah, here it is. It should be right… here." Sjin scooped up the dirt to reveal a long, massive hole in the ground. Everyone peeked over the side. Already, they could see several blocks of TNT at the bottom.

"Yup, this is the hole… with a shit ton of TNT." Duncan whistled. "Alrighty, let's get down here. Anyone got any ladders?"

"Yeah, I've got some," Kim said. She brought out a long rope ladder from her bag and passed it to Duncan. He then secured one end to a nearby fencepost and flung the rest down the hole. It stopped short halfway.

"Um, we might need to drop down a little," Duncan said. "Shouldn't be too hard, right? I mean, you two have diamond armor, and Rythian has some iron armor."

"Yeah, let's go," Sjin agreed. "We don't have that much time anyways, so let's hurry." He led the group down into the depths of the TNT hole.

**A/N: Sorry for being so late with the new chapter! School and other stuff... anyways, I'm back and I have an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! There are three endings to this story. It isn't something that I would normally do, but I thought out three seperate endings, one being the REAL ENDING. And to go about these three endings, I thought we might do a little choosing. Red or Blue! Make your descision in the reviews section, and after three days I'll tally them up and write the endings! We're getting close to the end, guys! Strawfinger's motives and all will make sense soon!**

**Havs, out!**


	6. Chapter 6-The Chamber of Secrets

"Careful… careful… Oof! Shit," Sjin muttered as the foursome dropped down one by one.

"Oh my gosh!" Kim gasped. "There's so much TNT!"

Sjin and the other two halfheartedly agreed. Strawfingers had placed down bundles the dynamite sticks into every nook and cranny of the enormous cavern that he dug out. It would take ages to clear everything out by himself. Sjin immediately thanked Notch that he had three other friends to help him with the cleanup. Well, two since Duncan had to work on the nukes.

"Where are the nukes?" he asked.

"There they are! There, in the middle. Holy shit that's a LOT of nukes…" Duncan gulped as he walked towards the deadly explosives. "I'll get to work on making a forcefield around these, and you guys clear out all the TNT."

"Fair enough," Rythian said as the three worked to clear the dynamite. "But why did you want me, Sjin?"

"Do you remember Strawfingers before he turned real and evil?"

"Yeah, you showed him to me, didn't you?"

"Exactly. I made him out of two Thaumium blocks. And a couple of levers, but that doesn't really matter."

Rythian immediately understood. "Oh… And once you place those blocks down…"

"They can't be destroyed," Sjin finished him. "At least, I don't think they can."

"So…"

"So if Strawfingers decides to turn into a blocky scarecrow again, we can't kill him. But is there a way to destroy the blocks?"

"Hm… I'm not sure. I think the best way for us to kill him is to probably knock him out, put him in the forcefield with the nukes and detonate them."

"That sounds like a pretty good plan," Sjin reasoned. "I found a little diary of his, and he was blown up by a creeper and went away to nurse his wounds. That means that he can be harmed when he's alive, but not when he's in block mode. But we don't even know where he is. He could be anywhere for all we know."

"I guess, but he most likely will be around the area. I can't think of any reason for him to go anywhere else."

"Yeah, I guess…" Sjin sighed. Then he suddenly hit upon an idea. "Hey! Can your magic destroy Thaumium blocks?"

Rythian shook his head. "It could, I think, but my magic is very weak at the moment. I used up most of my magic to heal Zoey and keep her alive."

"Oh." Sjin was disappointed, but he couldn't blame Rythian for it. "I guess we can go with the other plan. I just hope it will work…"

"Guys! I found a chest under all the TNT!" Kim called to them. "There's a diary in here too."

"Come over here to me, so I can hear what's written too," Duncan called back. Kim tucked the small diary under her arm and weaved her way around the remaining bundles of TNT to where Duncan's machines were set up. Sjin and Rythian looked at each other, shrugged and met Kim there as well.

"Who is it by?" Duncan wondered out loud.

"Hm…" Kim flipped through the diary until she came to the last entry. "It's by Strawfingers."

"Well, no big surprise. He was the only one who knew of this place." Rythian said.

"What does it say?" Sjin asked curiously.

Kim read a few entries to herself. "This is really interesting… You guys should hear this."

Sjin and the other two crowded around Kim as she started reading Strawfinger's diary, starting from the first entry.

**xxXxxXxx**

"My name is Strawfingers. I am a scarecrow, and this is my sad, sorry life story."

"I was a happy man, back in the Old World. I took care of my own farm, minded my own business, and even raised a family. I was happy. There were others who lived near me, two scientists, a mage, a mushroom girl, and some other people. I never paid any attention to them, and they didn't mind me either. It was like an unspoken peace treaty."

"I remember them all very distinctly. The mage was odd, but he was powerful. I don't remember his name, but he was a peaceful man, even if his wear was a bit eccentric. The two scientists kept getting into trouble, which was why I remember them very well. One was a brown haired mustached astronaut, and another was a stereotypical scientist, with lab goggles and a lab coat."

"Why do I remember them all very well? There's a very, very good reason to all of that."

"I was minding my own business, taking care of my farm like always, when suddenly everything was on fire. Those two _stupid_ scientists, they were burning up everything, _everything,_ and there was nothing I could do about it. They were flying and burning everything with their stupid science. They even had the nerve to kill everyone who never did anything bad to them. They killed the mage and burned down his tower. They killed the mushroom girl and set all of her mushrooms ablaze. The whole situation spelled destruction and disaster."

"My situation was no different. The idiot mustached scientist burned down my farm and killed, no, _blew up_ my wife and kids. Then he laughed insanely and shot a horde of arrows at me as well. I still remember his sick, grinning face as he rained hell upon me. I was shot down in a matter of seconds."

"I respawned, of course. I always do. But my wife and kids, they did not. They were hurt too badly and were destined to roam forever in the Void. I returned, of course, to my farm, careful to not attract the attention of the two scientists, who were nowhere to be found. Everything was still burning. All my hard work, my trees that I worked day and night to breed, they were burned and shot down in a matter of minutes."

"It was at that time when something unforgiveable occurred. Two explosions. Two nuclear blasts, it destroyed me instantly. My last seconds were used to watch my farm, my hard work, explode into smithereens. And it was the two scientists' fault."

"I was already heartbroken with the loss of my beautiful wife and kids. The destruction of my farm was too much though. Burning it down was one thing, wiping it off the face of Tekkitopia was another."

"I roamed the depths of the Void for what seemed a millennium, looking for my shattered family. I never found them. I gave up a long time ago."

"It was then when my hate for humans started rising up, even though I was one of them. I saw that they were flawed, stupid creatures, and all of them needed to die before they destroy everything in the land."

"I stayed in the Void, nurturing my hate and revenge, until that one day. The day I waited for so long."

"A wizard, that's what he said he was. I knew better, I've seen necromancers before, and I can tell that's what he was. He was an evil necromancer who claimed that he summoned my hateful spirit from the pits of the Void and brought me back to life."

"I was grateful to live again, but resurrection had prices to pay. I was still a spirit until someone placed something what the 'wizard' called Thaumium blocks in the form of a scarecrow. He said that he chained my spirit to that particular shape, and my destructive habits were useful to him."

"I was suspicious of the necromancer at first, but the more destructive missions we went on, the more I grew to love destruction and the screaming of innocents. I was a scarecrow now, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that I was in the position of power, that position to crush puny, stupid humans under my foot without feeling any sense of remorse."

"Soon news of my destruction spread far and wide in Tekkitopia. The locals created a name for me. Strawfingers. I liked it. I love now people would tremble at the sound of my name, how they feared their family would be killed and their farm exploded. It was addicting."

"I killed more people than I could count. I don't know how much, but the necromancer and I had everyone under my little pinky. It was a power I relished in."

"One day, something happened. Again."

"A man, who I was pretending to work for, killed the necromancer. So of course, I killed his family and burned down his house when he went mining as an act of revenge. He turned me back into Thaumium blocks and tried to break me, so he could throw me into lava."

"Of course, it didn't work. I laughed at his impudence, his stupidity, as he tried to blow up the blocks or break them up. He was growing more and more frustrated; I could feel it."

"He gave up soon after. He buried me in hope that no one would find me again. That didn't hold me for long though. As the Thaumium blocks ran out of magic, my spirit was released again. For a long time I roamed the land, hoping to gain some information about the ones who killed me in the first place."

"I gained a lot of information from a certain, large island called the Yog's Knot. The astronaut and the scientist lived there, as well as the mage, the mushroom girl, and others who I saw were dear to the two scientists."

"I hatched a plan to kill all of them for my revenge. It was the biggest project I have got myself into. Blowing up a whole city or kingdom would be a lot less difficult than this, for the group, the 'Yogscast', they called themselves, included a powerful demigod, a forest spirit, a spaceman, and a dwarf. They were extremely powerful, but thank goodness that none of them were very smart."

"My opportunity came when the mustached astronaut isolated himself from the rest to become a farmer, like I was before. I waited and watched, patiently, as the bumbling fool started his farm."

"My time had come. He so foolishly gathered Thaumium blocks and attempted to make a scarecrow out of them. Immediately, my spirit was whisked into the blocks. A flash of lighting, and I was myself again. It was very nice to move around, to have the power to destroy again."

"I immediately started to gather up the materials to hatch my wonderful plan. I was always watching the farmer and heard him tell of something called a 'Sjindig,' something like a party that he will host for all of his friends. It was too perfect. I'll blow them all up in front of his sorry face. Then I'll kill him myself."

"I captured one of his friends and held her hostage in my Nether tower. Then I stole his textures and made him follow me to the Nether. I disappeared as a spirit and entered her body. I brainwashed her to how I wanted her and left her body. She has been spying for me ever since."

"I will have my revenge. I have waited long enough. I _will_ see him kneeling on the ground, begging for mercy. But I won't give him any… because he never gave me any before. He will die, and I will be the executor."

-Strawfingers

**xxXxxXxx**

Kim closed the book slowly. She was speechless. Sjin and the others also held their breaths for several moments, each one trying to comprehend what was just read to them.

"I see you have found out my little secret," a gnarly voice spoke behind them.

Sjin and the others whirled around to face the evil entity that sneaked up behind them.

Strawfingers.

**A/N: Thanks for reading everybody! I was able to incorporate my vision of Strawfinger's story into the Old World and the newest episode of Feed the World (Episode 46)! This is where the three alternate stories come in! Again, please review, blue or red! This is really important! If you don't care, I guess that's fine too... but I really want to see what you guys want! Remember, there's a sad ending, a bad ending, and the real ending! You guys are choosing between the sad and the bad endings. Blue for sad and red for bad! GO~ And don't worry I will be putting all of them up, it's up to you guys to decide which order though!  
I guess it is also my fault for not making it very clear in the last chapter... oops. Sorry! **

**Havs, out!**


	7. Chapter 7-Blown (Alternate Ending)

"You!" Sjin cried. He quickly drew his diamond sword. Kim and the others did the same. Rythian held his Thaumium sword in front of him, and Duncan powered up his mining laser.

"You've found this place, and uncovered my secrets. Good job," Strawfingers said lazily. Sjin narrowed his eyes. Why wasn't the bastard worried?

"Your reward, death." Strawfingers pulled out a remote control. Sjin's eyes widened in horror.

Too many things happened at once.

Duncan and Rythian understood immediately what was going to happen. "I didn't finish the forcefield!" The scientist cried.

"Everyone, out! Out!" Rythian shouted. He pushed the team to the entrance. "Let's go! Hurry, hurry!"

"Shit!" Sjin panicked. "The ladder only goes down halfway! Kim, make more ladders! We need to get out of the blast range!"

"Okay, okay, I'll make more ladders!" Kim yelled as she hurriedly started making a makeshift rope ladder.

Strawfingers watched them scramble to get out of the hole with amused, empty eyes. He glanced at the remote control and the big red button in the very center. He looked up at the four panicking friends, an evil glint in his black eyes.

"Time to go, my little friends. Good night." Strawfingers grinned insanely as he pushed the button. Behind him, the nukes started lighting up.

_10._

"I've got the ladders!" Kim squealed. She threw the ladders to Duncan, who flew up and attached them to the end of the other rope ladder. The ladder fell down, but stopped short just a few feet above them.

_9._

_ 8._

"Come on! Hurry!" Rythian yelled. "I'll boost you up!" He laced his fingers together and boosted Sjin up, so he could just reach the ladder.

_7._

"Let's go, Kim!" Rythian yelled to her. Kim shook her head.

_6._

"You go first!" Kim said to him. The Mage shook his head, but wasted no time. He stepped onto Kim's hands and she boosted him up to the ladder.

_5._

Rythian held out his hand to Kim. "Hurry! Grab my hand!" He yelled desperately.

_4._

_ 3._

Kim jumped up and took Rythian's hand, but a claw grabbed her ponytail and pulled her back. Rythian lost his grip on the girl, and she fell back, knocking her head on the ground. The impact shattered her helmet. Shards of diamond and metal flew everywhere.

_2._

"KIM!" Sjin screamed. "Kim, no!" Strawfingers leaped up to grab the folds of Rythian's robes, forcing him to ascend the ladder to avoid being pulled down as well.

_1._

"Sjin!" Kim sobbed. "Sjin, help me! SJIN!"

_0._

Sjin closed his eyes and braced himself for the nuclear blast.

**xxXxxXxx**

"Kim… Kim… I… I'm so sorry… Kim, please don't hate me… I couldn't… I couldn't help you..." Sjin sobbed. He hugged his pillow tightly, or what he thought was his pillow.

"Ow, Sjin! Ow! Don't squeeze me! Jeez, what the hell's wrong with you, ya big dum dum!?" Sips squirmed his way out of his friend's tight grip. "It's the middle of the night, Sjin. You're badly hurt, so go to sleep! You can worry about everything else in the morning!"

Sjin whimpered and hugged Sips' arm. The CEO sighed but let the dumb babby hug him. "Jeez… Sjin," He muttered. "You're making me all red…"

Sjin didn't hear him. All he could hear was Kim's final scream as the nukes exploded, ripping through the stone, the dirt, the farm.

Ripping through Kim.

He could've helped her. He could've stayed behind and helped her get up. She could've made it out of the blast range if he hadn't gone first.

It was all his fault. _His_ fault that Kim died. _His_ fault that Rythian was blown to smithereens. _His_ fault that Duncan was sent flying into the ocean, beat up and bruised. It was his fault that his farm was blown up. His fault that all the trees and crops were destroyed in a matter of seconds. His fault that Jake, Charlotte, and Baby Sips lived such a short life. Kim was too young to experience this.

It was all his fault. It was all his fault. It was all his fault.

There were so many things that he could've done. He didn't have to call Duncan and Rythian over. It was his fault that his friends barely survived a nuclear blast. He could've left Kim back in the Nether and made it a solo mission. She didn't have to die.

But she did, he told himself, and you couldn't do anything.

Sjin didn't know where she ended up. She could've ended up anywhere. Her bed was destroyed by the nukes. She could've landed in the cold, snowy north, or in the depths of the Sands. She could've ended up anywhere, and no one would be able to help her recover from her wounds. She would just die again, untreated.

Sjin let out another series of sobs. Sips shifted uncomfortably in his bed, awkwardly trying to position himself as far away from Sjin as possible.

"Sips…" Sjin sobbed. "I could've saved her… She didn't… she didn't have to… I don't even know… where… she is…"

Sips smiled awkwardly and patted Sjin's back, trying to make him feel better. "Go to sleep, you big babby. Don't worry, I'll be there for you. We'll find Kim."

"Sips…" Sjin whispered. "Thanks… I just…"

"Yeah… Sjin? Sjin? You asleep? God, he fell asleep that fast? I envy him," Sips chuckled bitterly as he closed his eyes. In a few minutes, the two dirt traders were fast asleep.

**xxXxxXxx**

Sjin sat at the edge of the pool, looking at his reflection in the clear, undisturbed water. It had been a month since the explosions, but Kim's absence would forever remind him of the painful night.

He missed her cheerful and eager smile that she always flashed at him when he was down. He missed her laughter and the funny conversations they had when he taught her how to grow crops.

She would never be able to show him her farm again.

He and Sips continued to work at the factory after Sjin's worst wounds were healed. But it wasn't the same. There wasn't a ton of joking around anymore… not after what happened.

Rythian and Duncan came over several times in honest attempts to cheer him up. They tried reassuring him that it wasn't his fault, anything could've happened. Sjin didn't believe them. He guessed the good part was that all of them trusted each other now, but that didn't really help.

Everyone suffered injuries. Duncan was the one that was least affected; he was wearing quantum armor and was at the edge of the blast range and just got a couple of bruises and burns. Rythian respawned with a bloody leg and broken bones, and Sjin fell from the sky into the pool. He wasn't too badly hurt, but the screams that pierced the night were still fresh in his memory. Every time he closed his eyes, the screaming would come back, louder and more terrifying.

Strawfingers had gotten away. Duncan had raced back to the blast site after the explosions. He didn't find Strawfinger's body anywhere, just two stacked blocks of Thaumium and two levers placed in a scarecrow shape.

His farm was ruined. A few trees on the outskirts of his farm survived, but the radioactivity would soon kill them too. All his hard work, all the buildings, the crops, the trees, the bees… He could hear the evil, purple scarecrow laughing at him right now, but he couldn't face the inevitable truth.

Strawfingers had gotten his revenge.

**A/N: I'm sorry everyone! I decided to combine the two bad endings together, since the two of them were very similar anyways and I didn't really want to write two bad endings. It made me a bit sad writing them, and I'm a really nonchalant person... except when I'm watching the Yogscast, I guess. Anyways, the real ending will be up soon, and then I need to get onto writing another story! I have a vague idea of what I want to write, but suggestions are always appreciated! **

**Havs, out!**


	8. Chapter 8-The Sacrifice

"You!" Sjin cried. He quickly drew his diamond sword. Kim and the others did the same. Rythian held his Thaumium sword in front of him, and Duncan powered up his mining laser.

"You've found this place, and uncovered my secrets. Good job," Strawfingers said almost lazily. Sjin narrowed his eyes. Why wasn't the bastard worried?

"Your reward, death." Strawfingers pulled out a remote control. Sjin's eyes widened in horror.

Too many things happened at once.

"Hurry! Someone get that remote control!" Duncan shouted.

Rythian ran to Strawfingers and attempted to tackle him. The scarecrow leaped back with unnatural speed and chuckled softly as Rythian hit the ground, hard.

"Goddammit… that guy is fast…" Rythian muttered.

Sjin charged towards Strawfingers. The scarecrow jumped away from Sjin too, but this time, Kim was waiting for him.

Kim elbowed the scarecrow in the face and tackled him to the ground. Strawfingers fell to the ground and skidded a few feet back. He recovered as quick as lightning and dodged a swing from Kim's sword.

Strawfingers drew his own sword and met Kim in combat. Steel clashed against diamond, and the clang of metal echoed around the cavern.

Duncan trained his mining laser on the two, but he was hesitant to fire; he might hit Kim. Rythian was standing on the sidelines, his face screwed up tight in concentration. Sjin knew that he was using his magic to protect Kim, but he didn't know how much of it would help since Rythian's magic was still so weak.

The farmer drew his own sword and tried to enter the battle that engulfed the apprentice and the scarecrow, but Kim shouted, "Don't interfere, Sjin! This is between me and him!"'

"But-!" Sjin sighed and stepped back, obeying Kim's wishes. He understood. Kim wanted to get back at Strawfingers for using her. But Strawfingers was a very experienced fighter. What would happen if Kim couldn't keep up with him?

**xxXxxXxx**

It was minutes into Kim and Strawfinger's duel, and no one had landed a blow yet. Kim was holding up quite well, in her opinion. Strawfingers was strong and fast, but Kim was small and could duck around him easily, avoiding his attacks. But she was getting tired, but Strawfingers showed no sign of fatigue. She didn't know how long she would last.

The scarecrow swung at her head and followed up with a low kick in the same direction. Kim ducked, but Strawfinger's kick swept her off her feet. She collapsed to the ground, but her armor cushioned most of the damage. Still, it was more than enough to allow the scarecrow get the upper hand. Strawfingers pinned her to the ground with a foot and towered over her. He smiled wickedly and raised his sword. The steel gleamed evilly in the torchlight.

_No!_

Kim scanned the cavern quickly, and her eyes landed on Duncan's hand. He had lowered his mining laser during their battle and was holding the forcefield button in his hand. They were inside the forcefield range. Kim suddenly knew what she had to do.

She threw her sword at Duncan's hand. The blade shot through the air and the point pierced the red button, pressing it down. Before Strawfingers could react, the forcefield activated and encased the two in an impenetrable circle of blue energy. Next to Kim, the nukes started the countdown.

_10._

"NO!" Strawfingers screamed. He turned all attention away from Kim and ran next to the nukes, trying everything in his power to stop them from blowing. He only made it worse, and the countdown sped up.

_5._

"Strawfingers, you are not getting away this time!" Kim shouted. She leaped up and tackled Strawfingers to the ground. The scarecrow's head hit the ground first, rendering him unconscious. Kim winced as warm blood splattered on her face.

_4. _

_3._

Time seemed to slow down for her. The forcefield muffled the voices of her friends outside, but she could tell that they were frightened for her from their panicked voices.

_2._

She locked eyes with Sjin for a second. Those blue eyes of him only showed concern, worry and fear. It was odd. They felt the things she should've been feeling, yet she didn't feel them. Instead, she felt content, even a little bit peaceful, in spite of her grave situation.

_1._

Kim looked at Sjin for a second and felt a twinge of sadness. She was sad that she had to leave so soon. She was looking forward to the new adventures they would've gone on. But it was okay. She would be in a better place soon, and Sjin would move on. He would be strong, she knew it.

_0._

"Bye, Sjin," Kim whispered as darkness engulfed her.

**xxXxxXxx**

Kim opened her eyes. She was floating in a world of black. Strawfingers was nowhere to be seen. Her friends weren't there either.

"Where am I?" She wondered aloud.

A voice spoke in her head. It had a calming tone to it. _You are in the Void._

_The what?_ She asked.

_The Void. The fabric of space that spirits enter when they die. _The voice explained patiently.

_The Void? What do I do here? Do I stay here forever?_ Kim thought. _It would be quite boring, really._

_No, you are not staying here. _The voice said. _Notch gave you a second chance. You are going back. Back where you first started. _

Immediately, Kim's vision started blurring, and she succumbed under the overwhelming feeling of weariness. Before she lost full consciousness, she released one last thought.

_Thank you._

**xxXxxXxx**

Sjin looked at the bright blue sky morosely. Kim had left the face of Tekkitopia the other night, and he couldn't get his mind off of her for one second. Even though his farm was saved, Kim's sacrifice seemed very unnecessary if Strawfingers wasn't in the equation. He hated the scarecrow's guts to the core of his being, but had to content himself with the fact that the scarecrow was no more. Kim made sure of that.

As he worked, his mind wandered off to other thoughts, but most of them centered on Kim. There were so many things he could have taught her.

Rythian and Duncan left in the morning after comforting him all night. It seemed the three had fully forgiven each other, but Kim's absence didn't need to ensure that. He thought of the parting words the three exchanged before leaving.

_"Kim will come back, Sjin. It'll be okay," Rythian assured him._

_ "See you later, mate." Duncan smiled._

_ Sjin waved goodbye to the mage and scientist. "Stay safe. I'll do my best to forget."_

Forgetting. Sjin could never forget. But who could blame him? He saw his apprentice get blown up by nukes, and he couldn't do anything about it. Those two survived in that tower, through thick and thin and forged an iron strong friendship.

That tower… the only thing that reminded him of Strawfingers. Anger invaded his mind, and before he knew it, the farmer grabbed several bundles of dynamite from the chests and headed to the Nether Portal, intending to blow it up.

Sjin walked through the Portal, preparing himself for the dizzying journey through the two dimensions.

**xxXxxXxx**

Kim woke up from what felt like a restful night's sleep, something she didn't have in quite some time. She yawned, rubbed her eyes and looked around. She was on the roof of Strawfinger's tower again, lying next to the same fencepost she was on when she first met Sjin.

A clear string of curses flowed through her ears, and what she could decipher from it, most of it was directed to her deceased scarecrow friend. She was still half-asleep, so she was quite confused as to why someone in the Nether would go around cursing Strawfinger's name. A wave of drowsiness erupted within her, and a loud yawn escaped her mouth. Her eyes watered up slightly, and she quickly wiped away the tears that were forming in the corners of her eyes.

The string of cursers stopped suddenly, as if the speaker had heard Kim's loud yawn. Hurried, loud footsteps reached Kim's ears, but not before Sjin reached the roof of the tower, holding a bundle of TNT under his arm.

Kim swore that her face showed as much surprise as Sjin's did. For a few seconds, the two just stared at each other, jaws agape. As much as Sjin's presence surprised her, what surprised her more was that the man had the nerve to run over and hug her.

"Sjin! Get off me!" Kim gasped. The farmer had hugged her so tightly that he was cutting off her air supply.

Sjin released Kim from the hug and smiled sheepishly. "Heh… sorry Kim. I'm just so happy you're back!"

Kim beamed up at him. "I am back, thanks! It wasn't fun, getting blown up, but when I was in the Void, the voice said that Notch gave me a second chance. Isn't that crazy?"

Sjin smiled back at her and scratched his beard. "Yeah, that is pretty cool." Having died several times, he knew exactly what she meant. "You should go talk to Ridgedog later and let him give you the power to respawn. That way you can die and come back every time, yeah?"

Kim nodded eagerly and looked down at the block of TNT Sjin had by his side. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Huh? This? Oh, I was just going to blow up the tower. Do you want to do the honors?" Sjin grinned.

"I would love to! We can slowly walk away from the explosion and look really cool and all that!"

Sjin chuckled at the idea. "Ha ha, that'll be something. Okay then, let's go." He dropped the last chunks of TNT, and the two friends climbed down the stairs and out of the tower. Sjin gave Kim a piece of flint and some iron. She struck the two together, and lit the fuse for the nearest stick of dynamite.

The farmer and the apprentice walked away just as the tower exploded behind them, tearing the Nether brick and cobblestone apart. Kim could hear the flames crackling loudly, eating up the rest of the debris.

"That was pretty brave of you, ya know, sacrificing yourself for everyone," Sjin commented.

"It isn't that big of a deal," Kim shrugged. "I'm just glad that nothing really bad happened in the end."

Sjin nodded silently, and the two wordlessly passed through the Portal.

"Hey, now our job is done here, what do we do now?" Kim asked Sjin.

"Well, I still need to prepare my Sjindig, and we have to teach you a few more things about farming. I think… it should take us about another week, and then we can have the Sjindig and invite everyone over!"

"Can I help you? I know quite a lot about farming now." Kim raised her eyebrow at Sjin. She didn't know why, but the farmer laughed.

"Of course you can, Kim."

**A/N: So sorry for the long delay, school, writer's block, and everything kept me from writing this chapter! This story is finally over! Thanks to everyone who read it, reviewed, followed and favorited! It means so much to me! The next story I'm planning was hinted in this chapter, so if you think you know what it was, drop a review with your guess! Phew, this is finally done!**

**Havs, out!**


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